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Philly Confidential

A 2-year-old child was caught in the crossfire of a shooting in Strawberry Mansion Tuesday night, police said, and the young man holding her at the time was left fighting for his life.

Police said they were called to 29th Street near Huntingdon shortly after 10 p.m. and found the 19-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the head and the little girl shot in her upper right arm, Chief Inspector Scott Small said at the scene.

The 19-year-old was rushed to Temple University Hospital by medics. He was listed in extremely critical condition, Small said. The child was worked on by medics at the scene on the sidewalk and taken by police to Temple, where she was in stable condition.

Five witnesses were taken to speak with detectives in the Central Detective Division, and investigators were reviewing surveillance footage from businesses in the area to see if it captured the shooting, police said.

Investigators were unsure how the two victims were related, but said they lived at the same address in the neighborhood where the shooting happened.

As police investigated the shooting around 11 p.m. Tuesday, neighbors gathered at the corners watching and a baby's cries echoed from a porch in the middle of the block.

Small said cops found one spent casing from a large-caliber handgun an were checking the block for others.

The only information available on the shooter was that he was last seen running south on 29th Street.

Small called the crime "heinous," but said police were hopeful that between witnesses and surveillance footage, the shooter will be captured.